This work was
originally attributed to Methodius of Patara, a martyr bishop who died
in the early fourth century, C.E. It was actually composed around 660-680
C. E. The real author is unknown, but the original was written in Syriac
in the wake of the Islamic conquests and represented a Byzantine apocalyptic
tradition that continued to exercise an important influence on Western
Christian thought. It also has obvious links to the Sybilline Tradition.

THE ALEXANDER
LEGEND

Hear now then in true fashion how these four empires were joined, the
Ethiopian with the Macedonian and the Greek with the Roman. They are
the four winds that move the great sea (Dan. 7:2). Philip the Macedonian
was the father of Alexander and took to wife Chuseth, the daughter of
King Phol of Ethiopia. From her was born Alexander, who was made ruler
of the Greeks. He founded Alexandria the Great and reigned nineteen
years. He went to the East and killed Darius, king of the Medes. He
was the ruler of many regions and cities and he destroyed the earth.
He even went as far as the sea which is called the region of the sun24
where he beheld unclean races of horrible appearance. . . . He
gave orders and gathered them all together with their women and children
and all their villages. Leading them away from the East, he restrained
them with threats until they entered the northern lands where there
is no way in or out from East to West to visit them. Alexander prayed
to God without interruption and He heard his prayer.25 The
Lord God gave a command to the two mountains which are called the "Breasts
of the North,"26 and they came together to within twelve
cubits. Alexander built bronze gates and covered them with unmixed bitumen,27
so that if anyone wished to force them open by steel or to melt
them with fire, he would be able to do neither, but immediately every
fire would be extinguished. .

Who are the nations
and the kings that Alexander concealed in the North? Gog and Magog,
Anog and Ageg, Achenaz, Dephar, and the Potinei, the Libii, Eunii, Pharizei,
Declemi, Zarmatae, Theblei, Zamartiani, Chaconii, Amarzarthae, Agrimardii,
the Anuphagii (who are called Cynocephali),28 the Tharbei,
Alanes, Phisolonici, Arcnei, and the Asalturii. These twenty-two kings
live enclosed within the gates that Alexander made.29

In the final seventh millennium the Persian empire will be wiped out. In
this seventh millennium the seed of Ishmaelwill begin to go
forth from the desert of Ethribus. When they have gone forth, they will
all assemble at the great Gabaoth and there will be completed the saying
of Ezekiel the prophet: "Son of man," he said, "call the
beasts of the field and the birds of the air and exhort them saying, ‘Gather
yourselves together and come since I will give you a great sacrifice, to
eat the flesh of strong men and drink the blood of the mighty*
" (Ezek. 39:17).. . . And so the Lord God will give them (i.e., the
sons of Ishmael) the power to conquer the land of the Christians, not
because he loves them, but because of the sin and iniquity committed by
the Christians. Such sins have not nor shall be committed for all
generations. Men will get themselves up as false women wearing prostitutes*
clothes. Standing in the streets and squares of the cities openly before
all they will be adorned like women; they will exchange natural sex for
that which is against nature. As the blessed and holy Apostle says,
"men have acted like women" (Rom. 1:26—7))" A father, his
son, his brothers, and all the relatives will be seen to unite with one
woman.

For this
reason they will be given over by God into the hands of the barbarians
from whom they will sink into all uncleanness and stink of pollution.
Their women will be contaminated by filthy barbarians and the sons of
Ishmael will cast lots for their sons and daughters. The land of the
Persians is handed over to corruption and destruction, its inhabitants led
away to captivity and death. They also attack Armenia and those who dwell
there fall into captivity by the sword. . . . The land of Syria will be
empty and reduced; those dwelling in her will perish by the sword. . . .
Egypt and the East and Syria will be under the yoke and hemmed in by great
tribulations. They will be constrained without mercy; weight of gold and
silver beyond their strength will be eagerly desired of them. The
inhabitants of Egypt and Syria will be in trouble and affliction, seven
times the greater for those in captivity. The Land of Promise will be
filled with men from the four winds under heaven.

Translated from E.
Sackur, Sibyllinische Texte, pp. 80—83.

THE LAST WORLD
EMPEROR

. . . .
Then suddenly tribulation and distress will arise against them. The king
of the Greeks, i.e., the Romans, will come out against them in great
anger, roused as from a drunken stupor like one whom men had thought dead
and worthless (Ps. 77:65).32 He
will go forth against them from the Ethiopian sea and will send the sword
and desolation into Ethribus their homeland, capturing their women and
children living in the Land of Promise.The sons of the king
will come down with the sword and cut them off from the earth. Fear and
trembling will rush upon them and their wives and their children from all
sides. They will mourn their offspring, weeping over them and all the
villages in the lands of their fathers. By the sword they will be given
over into the hands of the king of the Romans—to captivity, death, and
decay.

The king of
the Romans will impose his yoke upon them seven times as much as their
yoke weighed upon the earth. Great distress will seize them; tribulation
will bring them hunger and thirst. They, their wives, and their children
will be slaves and serve those who used to serve them, and their slavery
will be a hundred times more bitter and hard. The earth which they
destituted will then be at peace; each man will return to his own land and
to the inheritance of his fathers—Armenia, Cilicia, Isauria, Africa,
Greece, Sicily. Every man who was left captive will return to the things
that were his and his fathers*,
and men will multiply upon the once desolated earth like locusts. Egypt
will be desolated, Arabia burned with fire, the land of Ausania burned,
and the sea provinces pacified. The whole indignation and fury of the king
of the Romans will blaze forth against those who deny the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then the earth will sit in peace and there will be great peace and
tranquility upon the earth such as has never been nor ever will be any
more, since it is the final peace at the End of time.

Then the "Gates
of the North" will be opened and the strength of those nations which
Alexander shut up there will go forth. The whole earth will be terrified
at the sight of them; men will be afraid and flee in terror to hide
themselves in mountains and caves and graves.35 They will die
of fright and very many will be wasted with fear. There will be no one to
bury the bodies. The tribes which will go forth from the North will eat
the flesh of men and will drink the blood of beasts like water. They will
eat unclean serpents, scorpions, and every kind of filthy and abominable
beast and reptile which crawls the earth. They will consume the dead
bodies of beasts of burden and even
women*s
abortions. They will slay the young and take them away from their mothers
and eat them. They will corrupt the earth and contaminate it.
No one will be able to stand against them.

After a week of years, when they
have already captured the city of Joppa, the Lord will send one of the
princes of his host and strike them down in a moment. After this the king
of the Romans will go down and live in Jerusalem for seven and half-seven
times, i.e., years. When the ten and a half years are completed the Son of
Perdition will appear.

14. He will be born in
Chorazaim, nourished in Bethsaida, and reign in Capharnaum. Chorazaim will
rejoice because he was born in her, and Capharnaum because he will have
reigned in her. For this reason in the third Gospel the Lord gave the
following statement: "Woe to you Chorazaim, woe to you Bethsaida, and
to you Capharnaum—if you have risen up to heaven, you will descend even
to hell" (Luke 10:13,15). When the Son of Perdition has arisen, the
king of the Romans will ascend Golgotha upon which the wood of the Holy
Cross is fixed, in the place where the Lord underwent death for us. The
king will take the crown from his head and place it on the cross and
stretching out his hands to heaven will hand over the kingdom of the
Christians to God the Father. The cross and the crown of the king will be
taken up together to heaven. This is because the Cross on which our Lord
Jesus Christ hung for the common salvation of all will begin to appear
before him at his coming to convict the lack of faith of the unbelievers.
The prophecy of David which says, "In the last days Ethiopia will
stretch out her hand to God" (Ps. 67:32) will be fulfilled in that
these last men who stretch out their hands to God are from the seed of the
sons of Chuseth, the daughter of Phol, king of Ethiopia. When the Cross
has been lifted up on high to heaven, the king of the Romans will directly
give up his spirit. Then every principality and power will be destroyed
that the Son of Perdition may be manifest. . .